Zapruder Film

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Zapruder Film
This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1994.

The Zapruder film is a silent 8mm color motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder with a Bell & Howell home-movie camera, as United States President John F. Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, right before Kennedy was assassinated. While it's far from the only film of the shooting, the Zapruder film has been described as being the most complete. It was an important piece of evidence before the Warren Commission hearings, and all subsequent investigations of the assassination, as well as one of the most studied pieces of film in history overall.

Why It's an Essential Mark in American Cinema

1. On November 22, 1963, Zapruder and his secretary, Marilyn Sitzman, went to watch President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade pass with an 8mm Bell & Howell Zoomatic camera and Kodak Kodachrome II film but were captured when Kennedy was mortally wounded by a rifle shot as his limousine was almost immediately in front of Zapruder. Returning to his office, Zapruder encountered a Dallas Morning News reporter, who contacted a Secret Service agent. The three brought the film to television station WFAA, where Zapruder appeared on air to describe what he saw around 3:00 p.m. At the same time, the film and three copies were processed at a local Eastman Kodak plant. Secret Service agent sent two copies to Washington, D.C.
2. The Zapruder film is not the only record of the assassination—some thirty-two photographers and filmmakers who covered Dealey Plaza on the day of the motorcade have been identified (Orville Nix, an air-conditioning engineer, filmed the motorcade from a reverse angle from Zapruder, for example). However, the Zapruder footage remains the most authoritative visual record of the assassination. It is a difficult film to watch, not just for its brutal violence, but for the effect the killing had on Kennedy’s family and society as a whole. Zapruder never got over what he saw. To his credit, and that of his heirs, he never stopped trying to protect the footage from commercial exploitation.

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